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LBI-CR participates in successful bid for HIV/AIDS vaccine within Horizon2020

An initiative entitled EAVI2020 led by Imperial College London has now been invited to enter the grant preparation phase after successful evaluation of a proposal answering to PHC 9 – 2015: Vaccine development for poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS.

With an outstanding score of 14.5 of 15 the proposal was short-listed for funding with a budget of 22.9 M€ and the consortium of 23 partners is now planning to initiate a comprehensive research programme to develop therapeutic vaccines for HIV/AIDS.

EAVI2020 will provide a platform for the discovery and selection of several new, diverse and novel preventive and/or therapeutic vaccine candidates for HIV/AIDS. Emphasis will be placed on early rapid, iterative, small Experimental medicine (EM) human vaccine studies to select and refine the best immunogens, adjuvants, vectors, homologous and heterologous prime–boost schedules, and determine the impact of host factors such as gender and genetics. Animal models will be used to complement human studies, and to select novel immunization technologies to be advanced to the clinic. To shift the “risk curve” in product development we will develop innovative risk prediction methods, specifically designed to reduce the risk associated with late stage preventive or therapeutic vaccine failure, increasing the chance of discovery of an effective vaccine.

Prof. Emilio Casanova will contribute his innovative BAC-based protein production system, which was developed in cooperation with the Austrian company Polymun. "This is a wonderful success for my very young potein production technology, to be included in such an ambitious project. I am very much looking forward to work with this exciting consortium," said Prof. Casanova when he learned about the evaluation result.

EAVI2020 is the third HORIZON2020 project within 6 months, which is granted to the LBI-CR after ONCOMECHAML and ALKATRAS. "This wonderful string of successful bids significantly helps us to maintain critical mass in a phase, where the institute undergoes significant restructuring in the wake of the integration into the partner universities," said institute director Prof. Richard Moriggl.